Eva. It is spoke as a christians ought to speak.

Shal. He hath wrong'd me, master Page.

Page. Sir, he doth in some sort confess it.

Shal. If it be confess'd, it is not redress'd: is not that so, master Page?

He hath wrong'd me; indeed, he hath;

me:

-

at a word, he hath; believe

Robert Shallow, esquire, saith, he is wrong'd.
Page. Here comes Sir John.

Enter Sir JOHN FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, NYM, and PISTOL.

17

Fal. Now, master Shallow; you'll complain of me to the king? Shal. Knight, you have beaten my men, killed my deer, and broke open my lodge. 18

Fal. But not kiss'd your keeper's daughter?

Shal. Tut, a pin! this shall be answered.

Fal. I will answer it straight: I have done all this. That is now

answer'd.

Shal. The Council shall know this.

Fal. 'T were better for you, if it were known in counsel:

laughed at.

Eva. Pauca verba, Sir John; good worts.

Fal. Good worts? good cabbage. 20- Slender, I broke your head: what matter have you against me?

Slen. Marry, Sir, I have matter 21 in my head against you; and against your coney-catching 22 rascals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. They carried me to the tavern, and made me drunk, and afterwards picked my pocket.

Bard. You Banbury cheese! 23

Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Pist. How now, Mephostophilus?
Slen.
Ay, it is no matter.

17) Für king der Fol. hat Q. A council. Vgl. Anm. 9.

18) Auf lodge

=

Wohnung des Försters oder Wildhüters, bezieht sich Falstaff's Replik, die vielleicht ein Citat aus einer alten, verlorengegangenen Ballade ist. 19) Wortspiel zwischen Council (Vgl. Anm. 9) und in counsel heimen.

=

im Vertrauen, im Ge

20) Evans sagt worts für words, und Falstaff fasst persiflirend worts = Kraut, Kohl. 21) Das Wortspiel zwischen matter = Sache, Stoff im Allgemeinen, und Materie, Eiterstoff aus einer Wunde, kehrt wieder in Troilus and Cressida (A. 2, Sc. 1) then would come some matter from him.

= gaunerisch. Der folgende Satz They carried me der in der Fol. fehlt, ist aus Q. A von Malone entlehnt. 23) Bardolph bezeichnet damit Slender's Magerkeit. So in Jack Drum's Entertainment: Put off your clothes, and you are like a Banbury cheese, nothing but paring. Banbury ist ein Städtchen in Oxfordshire. Slender's abschreckende Hässlichkeit deutet dann Pistol an, indem er ihn Mephostophilus nennt, mit der Anspielung auf den teuflischen Gefährten des Doctor Faustus, den Marlowe auf's Theater gebracht hatte.

Nym. Slice, I say! pauca, pauca; 24 slice! that 's my humour.
Slen. Where's Simple, my man?

Eva. Peace! I pray you. Now let us in this matter, as I understand; that is

can you tell, cousin?

understand: there is three umpires master Page, fidelicet, master

Page; and there is myself, fidelicet, myself; and the three party is, lastly and finally, mine host of the Garter.

Page. We three, to hear it, and end it between them.

Eva. Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in my note-book; and we will afterwards 'ork upon the cause, with as great discreetly as we can. Fal. Pistol!

Pist. He hears with ears.

Eva. The tevil and his tam! what phrase is this? He hears with ear?" Why, it is affectations.

Fal. Pistol, did you pick master Slender's purse?

26

Slen. Ay, by these gloves, 25 did he, (or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again else) of seven groats in mill-sixpences, and two Edward shovel-boards, that cost me two shilling and two pence apiece of Yed 27 Miller, by these gloves.

Eva. No; it is false, if it is a pick-purse.

Pist. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner! 28 Sir John and master mine,

I combat challenge of this latten bilbo: 29

Word of denial in thy labras 30 here;

Word of denial: froth and scum, thou liest.

Slen. By these gloves, then 't was he.

24) Nym meint pauca verba, wie Evans vorher schon gesagt, und fordert damit den Slender auf, seine Ausdrücke zu bemessen oder seine Rede abzuschneiden (slice). humour ist Nym's überall wiederkehrendes Lieblingswort, ein von Sh. in seiner Vieldeutigkeit auch anderswo persiflirtes Modewort.

25) Wie Slender hier bei seinen Handschuhen schwört, einem Modeartikel, auf den er sich etwas einbildet, so schwört er ähnlich in Q. A by this handkercher. 26) mill-sixpences

Sechspfennigstücke, die auf der Prägemühle (1562-1572) geschlagen waren und die später, nachdem man eine andere Prägeweise anwandte, als Rechenpfennige dienten, wie man die Schillinge aus Edward's VI. Zeit im Brettspiel benutzte. Für two Edward shovel-boards, hat Q. A deutlicher two fair shovel-board shillings. 27) Yed abgekürzt aus Yedward, wo K. Henry IV. First Part (A. 1, Sc. 2.) für Edward

steht.

2) Die Walliser werden auch sonst wegen ihres bergigen, rauhen Geburtslandes von den Engländern verhöhnt, so in K. Henry V. (A. 5, Sc. 1) you called me yesterday mountain-squire.

29) Als messingne Klinge bezeichnet Pistol verächtlich den unkräftigen Slender, den er zum Zweikampf herausfordern will. challenge und combat sind emphatisch umgestellt. 30) Pistol gebraucht renommistisch das Fremdwort labras, spanisch, für Slenders Lippen, in welche er die von ihnen ausgegangene Lüge zurücksendet. In Q. A sagt er: I do retort the lie || Even in thy gorge, thy gorge, thy gorge.

Nym. Be avised, Sir, and pass good humours. I will say, marry trap," with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on me; 31 that is the very note of it.

Slen. By this hat, then he in the red face had it; for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass. Fal. What say you, Scarlet and John? 32

Bard. Why, Sir, for my part, I say, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five sentences.

Eva. It is his five senses: fie, what the ignorance is!

Bard. And being fap, 33 Sir, was, as they say, cashier'd; and so conclusions pass'd the carieres.

Slen.

Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 't is no matter. I'll ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest, civil, godly company, for this trick: if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves.

Eva. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind.

Fal. You hear all these matters denied, gentlemen; you hear it.

Enter ANNE PAGE with wine; Mistress FORD and Mistress PAGE following. Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we 'll drink within.

Slen. O heaven! this is mistress Anne Page.
Page. How now, mistress Ford?

[Exit ANNE Page.

Fal. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well met: by your leave, good mistress.

[Kissing her. Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome. Come, we have a hot venison pasty to dinner: come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness. [Exeunt all but SHAL., SLENDER, and EVANS. Slen. I had rather than forty shillings, I had my Book of Songs and Sonnets here. 34

31) Ich sage: Nehmt Euch in Acht, oder eigentlich: Attrappirt! wenn Ihr den Schergen bei mir spielen, mich als Dieb verhaften oder angeben wollt. nuthook eine Stange, um Nüsse von den Bäumen zu schlagen, kommt auch sonst als eine ehrenrührige Bezeichnung der Schergen oder Büttel vor. So in K. Henry IV. Second Part (A. 5, Sc. 4). Vielleicht liegt auch hier wieder eine Anspielung auf Slender's hagern Wuchs vor. Q. A hat: But if you run base humours of me, I will say marry trap. And there's the humour of it.

=

--

32) So hiessen zwei Gefährten Robin Hood's, des in altenglischen Balladen gefeierten Wilddiebes und Vagabunden. - Falstaff spielt mit Scarlet auf Bardolph's rothes Gesicht an. 33) fap ein sonst nirgendwo vorkommendes Wort, das betrunken, sein muss. Bardolph drückt sich geflissentlich dunkel aus, eben so in dem Folgenden, dessen eigentlicher Sinn nur der sein kann, dass Slender in seinem Rausch nichts mehr von sich gewusst habe und über alles Mass hinausgegangen sei. Bardolph's Worte sind dem Slender so unverständlich, dass er sie für Latein hält. 34) Slender meint irgend eine gedruckte Gedichtsammlung, die er zu Hause hat und die er für ein Gespräch mit Anne Page gut benutzen zu können glaubt. Malone meint

Enter SIMPLE.

How now, Simple! Where have you been? I must wait on myself, must I? You have not the Book of Riddles 35 about you, have you?

Sim. Book of Riddles! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ? 36

Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with you, coz; marry, this, coz: there is, as 't were, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh here: do you understand me?

Slen. Ay, Sir, you shall find me reasonable: if it be so, I shall do that that is reason.

Shal. Nay, but understand me.

Slen. So I do, Sir.

Eva. Give ear to his motions, master Slender. I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it.

Slen. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow says. I pray you pardon me; he 's a justice of peace in his country, simple though I stand here. Eva. But that is not the question; the question is concerning your marriage. Shal. Ay, there 's the point, Sir.

Eva. Marry, is it, the very point of it; to mistress Anne Page.

Slen. Why, if it be so, I will marry her upon any reasonable demands. Eva. But can you affection the 'oman? Let us command 37 to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philosophers hold, that the lips is parcel of the mouth: therefore, precisely, can you carry your good will to the maid?

Shal. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her?

Slen. I hope, Sir, I will do, as it shall become one that would do reason. Eva. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies, you must speak possitable, 38 if you can carry her your desires towards her.

Shal. That you must. Will you, upon good dowry, marry her? Slen. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your request, cousin, in any reason.

Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz: what I do, is to pleasure you, coz. Can you love the maid?

Slen. I will marry her, Sir, at your request; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance,

hier speziell die lyrischen Gedichte des Lord Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt u. A., welche im Jahre 1557 erschienen unter dem Titel: Songes and Sonnets, written by the Right Honorable Lord Henry Howard, late Earl of Surrey and others. 35) Collier vermuthet, dass damit The Booke of Merry Riddles gemeint sei, ein sehr populäres Buch, dass viele Auflagen erlebte.

36) Da Allerheiligen in der That beinahe fünf Wochen nach Michaelis fällt, so wollte Theobald Martlemas für Michaelmas lesen. Indess liess Sh. wahrscheinlich den Simpel geflissentlich so falsch rechnen.

31; Evans will demand sagen.

38) Er meint positively.

when we are married, and have more occasion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: 39 but if you say, „marry her,“ I will marry her; that I am freely dissolved, and dissolutely.

Eva. It is a fery discretion answer; save, the faul 40 is in the 'ort dissolutely the 'ort is, according to our meaning, resolutely. His meaning is good.

:

Shal.

Ay, I think my cousin meant well.

Slen.

Ay, or else I would I might be hanged, la.

Re-enter ANNE PAGE.

Shal. Here comes fair mistress Anne. - 'Would I were young, for your sake, mistress Anne!

Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your worships' company.

Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Anne.

Eva. Od's plessed will! I will not be absence at the grace. 41

[Exeunt SHALLOW and Sir H. EVANS.

Anne. Will 't please your worship to come in, Sir?

Slen. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily; I am very well.
Anne. The dinner attends you, Sir.

--

42

Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth. Go, sirrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my cousin Shallow. [Exit SIMPLE.] A justice of peace sometime may be beholding to his friend for a man. I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead; but what though? yet I live like a poor gentleman born.

-

Anne. I may not go in without your worship: they will not sit, till you come.

Slen. I' faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as though I did.
Anne. I pray you, Sir, walk in.

Slen. I had rather walk here, I thank you. I bruised my shin the other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence, 43 (three

39) contempt ist Theobald's Emendation für content der Fol., wie Slender dissolved für resolved u. s. w. sagt. Slender denkt an das Sprichwort too much familiarity breeds

contempt.

40) fall in der Fol. So spricht Evans das Wort fault aus.

41) Evans als Geistlicher will das Tischgebet bei der Mahlzeit sprechen. Passus erst in der zweiten Scene des ersten Akts.

Q. A hat diesen

42) Shallow kann sich schon einmal die Verpflichtung gefallen lassen, die er gegen seinen Verwandten Slender hat, weil Letzterer ihm durch seinen Bedienten bei Tisch aufwarten lässt. Auch hier setzen die meisten Hgg. stillschweigend beholden für das Sh.'sche beholding.

43) Steevens will unter master of fence hier nicht bloss einen Fechtmeister oder Meister in der Fechtkunst verstanden wissen, sondern Einen, der darin förmlich einen Meistergrad erlangt hat. Indess scheint diese Erklärung überall, und namentlich für Slender, zu gesucht.